Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis announces that teachers will not strike tomorrow and a tentative agreement with CPS has been made at the SEIU Healthcare headquarters Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis announces that teachers will not strike tomorrow and a tentative agreement with CPS has been made at the SEIU Healthcare headquarters Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

CAPTION

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis announces to members of the press that CTU is still deliberating and a decision to strike has not yet been made at the SEIU Healthcare headquarters Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis announces to members of the press that CTU is still deliberating and a decision to strike has not yet been made at the SEIU Healthcare headquarters Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

CAPTION

Teachers' supporters protest near Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home on Oct. 10, 2016, as Chicago Teachers Union members get ready for a potential strike.

Teachers' supporters protest near Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home on Oct. 10, 2016, as Chicago Teachers Union members get ready for a potential strike.

CAPTION

The looming threat of a strike by the Chicago Teachers Union continues, and if an agreement isn't reached with the Chicago Board of Education by the end of the day Oct. 10, teachers have vowed to strike the following day. (CBS Chicago)

The looming threat of a strike by the Chicago Teachers Union continues, and if an agreement isn't reached with the Chicago Board of Education by the end of the day Oct. 10, teachers have vowed to strike the following day. (CBS Chicago)

The good news: Classrooms opened Tuesday for Chicago Public Schools' 378,400 students. The city averted a teachers strike — for now. But at what cost?

Chicago Teachers Union members still have to vote on the tentative contract, which includes the continuation of a generous perk: Teachers now in the system will keep paying just 2 percentage points of their 9 percent employee share of pension contributions. Taxpayers will keep picking up the rest. Nearly every other city worker pays the full 9 percent.

The perk will end for teachers hired after Jan. 1, but extra pay hikes for them will make up the difference, officials from both sides said.

Rank-and-file teachers will get 2 percent raises in 2018 and 2.5 percent raises in 2019, plus increased pay for seniority and educational advancement known as step-and-lane increases. They'll also get some of that pay retroactively; the district froze step-and-lane increases during contract talks.

The contract also ensures there will be teacher aides in kindergarten through second-grade classrooms with 32 or more students. And so on.

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis announces that teachers will not strike tomorrow and a tentative agreement with CPS has been made at the SEIU Healthcare headquarters Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis announces that teachers will not strike tomorrow and a tentative agreement with CPS has been made at the SEIU Healthcare headquarters Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

We don't yet know the price tag of the contract. So far, it's tough to see where the teachers gave up much of anything. Where's the "shared sacrifice" often referenced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other elected officials? As often is the case with public sector workers, the threat of a disruptive strike was enough to dissolve whatever gumption Emanuel and district officials had stockpiled. By keeping the pension pickup in place for current teachers, taxpayers lose out on desperately needed short-term savings of roughly $127 million annually. Even an impartial arbitrator ruled earlier this year it was not unreasonable to ask teachers to pay more toward their own pension costs. No matter.

CPS remains a district on the brink. Instability and low performance are driving families out. CPS' enrollment dropped by nearly 14,000 students this year alone — three times last year's loss and the steepest annual decline in more than a decade. With less per-pupil funding, teacher layoffs and budget cuts will follow.

Taxpayers have shouldered the maximum property tax levy for 22 of the last 25 years. District officials continue to rely on borrowing for day-to-day expenses at alarmingly high interest rates. CPS budgets for years have been balanced only on paper; this year's budget depends on money from Springfield that's contingent on a statewide pension deal that for now is a daydream. And raiding tax increment financing districts will never be enough to reverse the structural deficit of CPS.

Yes, kids are in school instead of sitting at home playing video games or getting shuffled to CPS-designated day care centers during a strike. But forgive us for not blowing the party horns.